Kolkata, Nov 14: South Africa batting coach Ashwell Prince blamed their struggles on “inconsistency of the bounce” and the “trust” deficit it created on a tricky Eden Gardens surface as India took the day one honours on day one of the opening Test here on Friday.
Jasprit Bumrah’s five-wicket burst ensured that South Africa collapsed from 57 for no loss to 159 all out in little over two sessions.
“I think the signs were there pretty early on that the bounce is not consistent,” Prince said after the opening day’s play.
“Quite often what can happen is that when you expect batters to get to 20, 30 and grow in confidence, I don’t particularly believe that any of the batters grew in confidence because of the inconsistency of the bounce.”
Prince said the erratic bounce prevented his batters from ever feeling settled, even after getting starts.
“What can happen is that you don’t trust the surface as much as you should after spending an hour at the crease.”
South Africa began brightly through Aiden Markram and Ryan Rickelton before Bumrah’s spell (5/27) ripped open their top order and exposed a pitch where the strokeplay became uncertain.
Prince said India’s attack offered no breathing space.
“Of course, when you face a quality bowling attack, they can more often than not get the ball in the danger area and it does too much for you. And unfortunately, that’s been the case today.”
South Africa were already handicapped without Kagiso Rabada, nursing a rib injury, and Prince admitted the team felt the absence acutely especially after watching Bumrah operate.
“Well, KG is a world-class bowler, probably one of the top two or three seam bowlers in the world. And we’ve seen what damage one of the other best seam bowlers in the world can do to that on that surface.”
“So he’ll definitely be missed on the surface because I do think it is actually aiding the fast bowlers.”
Bumrah’s impact, he said, showed how demanding the conditions were.
“It was a sensational bowling display, particularly from Bumrah. Siraj in his first spell, not quite hit the steps, but came back in the second spell when he changed ends and was pretty good. But Bumrah was relentless and spinners were pretty good as well.”
Prince said the dismissals reflected the quality of the bowling rather than poor judgment.
“Quite a few good deliveries and sometimes as batters, there’s not a lot you can do about them. But we’ve got to work hard, long way to go in the game and hopefully we’ll go better in the second innings.”
With five batters falling between 20 and 30, Prince said the team would revisit their options for the second innings without compromising individual styles.
“I’m sure we’ll have some discussions about which type of options we can take, more aggressive options. Everybody’s got his own character and his own type of style that he brings to the game,” he said.
“Most of the time, we trust people to play within their character. But obviously, we have to take the surface into consideration… Next time around, the second innings round, we have to play the conditions.”
Not a free scoring pitch
India ended the day at 37 for one, with KL Rahul batting 13 off 59 balls, an innings Prince said confirmed the difficulty of scoring freely.
“Rahul, I think, is 13 of nearly 60 deliveries… it would suggest that it’s not a free-scoring pitch.”
Despite India’s position, Prince said South Africa were not out of the game.
“Obviously, from our point of view, we want them to have at least 150 to chase in the second innings… But that’s a long way away. First things first is to try and get a couple of early wickets in the morning, and then see how the day unfolds.”
Asked if the surface merited criticism after a day of sharp variations, Prince was guarded.
“Well, it’s early days. I mean, it’s only been one day. It’s pretty early to give a rating to the surface.”(PTI)
